URALIDES AND TIMANIDES: THEIR STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIP AND POSITION IN THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE URAL-MONGOLIAN FOLD BELT

Abstract

We substantiate theoretically the recognition of the Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic Ural-Paikhoi-Novaya Zemlya fold belt as Uralides not analogous to Hercynides (Variscides) and the preceding Late Vendian Timan folded structures and Uralian lower structural units as Timanides not analogous to Baikalides. Uralides and underlying Timanides are noticeably distinguished from the other rocks of the Ural-Mongolian fold belt. The Ordovician rifting and subsequent drift of continents, resulted in the Paleouralian ocean, seriously disturbed the initially intimate relationship between Timanides and European Cadomides and brought the former into a closer proximity to Baikalides, which formed at different time. The subsequent evolution of Uralides also proceeded mainly in antiphase with more eastern, initially quite remote parts of the Ural-Mongolian belt. However, from Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic, during the formation of Pangea, the Uralian, Kazakhstan, and Siberian continents underwent collision, and new intimate structural relationships were established within the Ural-Mongolian fold belt.